The 2020-2021 Ski season thread

[PowderBeard]

2 hours ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

I see they opened with 11 trails on 2 mountains/lifts.  Not bad for an opening day.

Absolutely, especially given weather. 

With some decent windows opening I imagine they go for lower Locke and North Peak next. Killington probably finishes up on Snowdon before the Superstar Pod and Ram's Head. Lower Super is always a pain but in the past they can just cover the headwall and middle sections and re-route to Skyelark/Bittersweet.

Wildcat seems to be in no rush which is a bummer but they really don't draw. They have an under-rated snowmaking system and great elevation/location. There have been a couple years since 2015 when Killington and Sunday River were still downloading from K1/Locke and Wildcat had 2000' of vert open. 

[PowderBeard]

Killington's report says they are going for Downdraft and Lower East Fall to get the Canyon Quad going. Interesting. I know they make snow on the "Downdraft Headwall" under K1 but I've never seen guns going on the rest of it. Needs a ton of snow due to massive waterbars, ledges, etc. and I'm not sure how they move the piles around. They would also have to cover the lower 1/3 of Double Dipper to link it to the lift. IDK. 

[bch2014]

Mt Snow looks to have some decent terrain for opening day tomorrow... Free Fall on the North Face, Canyon on the skier's left of the main face, and Long John on skier's right. Three true routes down.. I've skied worse on first days!

[PowderBeard]

1 hour ago, bch2014 said:

Mt Snow looks to have some decent terrain for opening day tomorrow... Free Fall on the North Face, Canyon on the skier's left of the main face, and Long John on skier's right. Three true routes down.. I've skied worse on first days!

Free Fall open is fantastic. Saw some pics from there yesterday and there was a tiny patch on upper Long John - figured there was no way they could open before Friday. Must have really cranked it up.

[bch2014]

3 runs in.. Conditions pretty typical early season at Mt Snow but not horrible.

[bwt3650]

54 minutes ago, bch2014 said:

3 runs in.. Conditions pretty typical early season at Mt Snow but not horrible.

North face looks empty.

[Professional Lurker]

Gotta say, even though it's there dreaded white ribbon of death, I'm pretty jealous.

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

[bch2014]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

North face looks empty.

North face is empty, main face pretty busy.

Fellow skier going nuts in line on Bluebird lift threatening to check the IDs of fellow skiers to make sure they’re from VT. Uh, under what authority sir..

To be clear, not a Vail employee and 99.8% of people are totally cool here. But there’s always one!

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, bch2014 said:

North face is empty, main face pretty busy.

Fellow skier going nuts in line on Bluebird lift threatening to check the IDs of fellow skiers to make sure they’re from VT. Uh, under what authority sir..

To be clear, not a Vail employee and 99.8% of people are totally cool here. But there’s always one!

Hopefully no one has a true meltdown. 

[powderfreak]

54 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Hopefully no one has a true meltdown. 

The only real meltdowns today seem to be people losing their minds over wearing masks and indoor capacity restrictions (what do you mean I can’t go in there right now?!).  Been some reports of skiers asking for more space/distancing in lift lines, while others say COVID is a joke and shut up.  Have to love humanity.  Some people fight it every step of the way, others want a sizable bubble around them.  

[Angus]

@powderfreak nice picture today and also noted the corporate disclaimer on twitter too. 

 

[HoarfrostHubb]

My son was working lifts last Sunday and had to ask a couple of people to put their masks on while in line/loading.  
The advantage to doing this at the resort vs a store or something is your pass/ticket can be pulled.  Hopefully that won’t happen. 
It’s really not hard to wear one. Especially skiing.  
Anyone have any good products they like that cover mouth and nose for skiing?

[snowgeek]

My son was working lifts last Sunday and had to ask a couple of people to put their masks on while in line/loading.  
The advantage to doing this at the resort vs a store or something is your pass/ticket can be pulled.  Hopefully that won’t happen. 
It’s really not hard to wear one. Especially skiing.  
Anyone have any good products they like that cover mouth and nose for skiing?

I just bought a Buff filter tube. Seems really nice. Comes with 5 filters. I don’t plan on changing them as often as they recommend.


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[#NoPoles]

Bretton Woods opened today, what a way to ring in the ski season,  45 degrees, low ceilings, and rain/drizzle

[snowgeek]

Bretton Woods opened today, what a way to ring in the ski season,  45 degrees, low ceilings, and rain/drizzle

That’s so 2020 lol.


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[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, snowgeek said:

That’s so 2020 lol.


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Ha that does sound like 2020... I was happy we opened yesterday with a surprise few inches of snowfall in the morning.  Classic Mansfield, satisfying the snow lovers on opening day.  Today was murky and moist, low clouds and dark.

Some shots from yesterday...a better way to kick it off.  The luck of getting a surprise burst of snowfall timed well with opening morning seemed anti-2020.

[snowgeek]

Ha that does sound like 2020... I was happy we opened yesterday with a surprise few inches of snowfall in the morning.  Classic Mansfield, satisfying the snow lovers on opening day.  Today was murky and moist, low clouds and dark.
Some shots from yesterday...a better way to kick it off.  The luck of getting a surprise burst of snowfall timed well with opening morning seemed anti-2020.

Nice Scott! Did everything run smooth Covid wise? How many people compared to a normal opening day?


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[PhineasC]

The warmth and rain Monday and Tuesday will set everything back again. We figure we won’t be skiing until December 7th and beyond at the earliest. It’s a shame. 

[MarkO]

On 11/26/2020 at 12:44 AM, snowgeek said:

I just bought a Buff filter tube. Seems really nice. Comes with 5 filters. I don’t plan on changing them as often as they recommend.


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I did the same thing. I think I spent about $10 on Amazon, then broke down and finally bought a nice pair of goggles on a black Friday sale. I hate spending money on goggles b/c they always seem to get pretty mucked up with scratches. Thinking about doing a couple runs as BW, but that's a lot of driving for one top to bottom run.

[snowgeek]

I did the same thing. I think I spent about $10 on Amazon, then broke down and finally bought a nice pair of goggles on a black Friday sale. I hate spending money on goggles b/c they always seem to get pretty mucked up with scratches. Thinking about doing a couple runs as BW, but that's a lot of driving for one top to bottom run.

I spent too much on the name brand. Seems super high quality though.

https://buffusa.com/search-buff/Filter%20tube


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[CoastalWx]

Shut em down.

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Shut em down.

I understand there is publicity in being first but the weather looks really bleak for NNE until this time next week.

[CoastalWx]

Just now, PhineasC said:

I understand there is publicity in being first but the weather looks really bleak for NNE until this time next week.

Yep, changes later next week. Might not be lots of snow initially, but at least the atmosphere will be favorable for snow making.

[PhineasC]

10 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Yep, changes later next week. Might not be lots of snow initially, but at least the atmosphere will be favorable for snow making.

Models keep hinting at a coastal around the end of next weekend. Praying it materializes. A foot+ across the area followed by solid cold and upslope would get things back on track.

[ORH_wxman]

12 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I understand there is publicity in being first but the weather looks really bleak for NNE until this time next week.

Gotta get those runs in on the icy death ribbons.

This is why I rarely ski in early season. Even when there is a big snowstorm in early season, the pent up demand usually makes it hard to avoid big crowds unless I play hooky and go during a weekday.

But I'm guessing things will be rocking pretty good by Xmas week up in the ski areas if the ensembles are correct. Looks like a pretty good 2-3 week period coming up post-12/5.

[PhineasC]

5 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Gotta get those runs in on the icy death ribbons.

This is why I rarely ski in early season. Even when there is a big snowstorm in early season, the pent up demand usually makes it hard to avoid big crowds unless I play hooky and go during a weekday.

But I'm guessing things will be rocking pretty good by Xmas week up in the ski areas if the ensembles are correct. Looks like a pretty good 2-3 week period coming up post-12/5.

I leave to go back to MD for 10 days starting on the 11th so I would pencil in that timeframe for some epic cold and snow. Probably record-setting stuff.

[mcglups]

I like to ski this day, but not this year. To make up for it, I'm going to make my first ever trip to Sugarloaf for 12/13 to 12/19. Mixed in with work remotely, a few good hours each day on the slopes, and some good luck for cooler temperatures, should make for a reasonable first outing for the season!

[STILL N OF PIKE]

My cousin was at Stowe for opening day, was even Interviewed on Channel 5, No icy death ribbons with the N greens Natural snow making machine on blast Wednesday.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

I leave to go back to MD for 10 days starting on the 11th so I would pencil in that timeframe for some epic cold and snow. Probably record-setting stuff.

Thank you for your sacrifices!

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

I understand there is publicity in being first but the weather looks really bleak for NNE until this time next week.

Lots of pent up demand.  More people skiing one or two ribbons of white now than there will be at the end of March or April with 100” at the Mansfield stake and 100% open.

Folks are jonesing... drive 3 hours from Boston for two routes of snowmaking this time of year in drizzle/mist but then in late March when the grass is starting to green up at their house (it’s light out until 7pm) and some start talking about installing A/C units in CT, they’ll give it up despite 100% open ski hills.

Its something they ski industry has struggled with for decades.  It’s just how the demand works, so that’s why ski areas push so hard to open in mid/late Nov to capitalize on that demand.

Hell that’s how I grew up in Albany, NY... my parents would take us in the dark days of November and December but as spring moved out we’d transition to spring sports in the Hudson Valley despite deep packs up north and great skiing.